It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error It's a Wonderful Life ( 1946 ) PG | From $12.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed. Director: a list of 27 titles created 01 Dec 2012 a list of 27 titles created 08 Nov 2013 a list of 27 titles created 15 Dec 2014 a list of 37 titles created 03 Jan 2015 a list of 23 titles created 22 Dec 2015 Title: It's a Wonderful Life (1946) 8.6/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin.

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Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich Stars: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould Edit Storyline George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George's modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George's Uncle Billy loses the business's $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George, with the promise of earning his ... Written by alfiehitchie Did You Know? Trivia Joseph Walker was the original cinematographer, while Joseph F.

Biroc was the assistant. When Frank Capra asked Walker to continue shooting as the sun went down on James Stewart wandering through the streets of Bedford Falls, Walker refused. Capra then asked Biroc if he could shoot the scene, and Biroc replied, "I can." Walker was released by Capra, the scene was shot and Biroc was upped to Cinematographer. Both Walker and Biroc share credits on the film, Biroc listed above Walker. See more » Goofs 'The Bells of Saint Mary's" (1945) had just been released to the first-run, big-city theatre circuit, and would not have been playing the neighborhood, small-town theatre circuit this early.

See more » Quotes Bob Anderson, 75, Former Child Actor in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |Bob Anderson, 75, Child Actor, Is Dead Search Bob Anderson, 75, Child Actor, Is Dead By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bob Anderson, who played the younger version of James Stewart’s George Bailey in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” died on Friday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 75. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Victoria. Robert J. Anderson grew up in Hollywood in a movie family. His father, Gene, was an assistant director and later a production manager. The directors William Beaudine and James Flood were his uncles, and his brothers and cousins were editors and production managers. Mr. Anderson’s film debut came when relatives needed him to appear in a movie scene that called for a baby, his wife said. Photo H.B.

Warner, left, and Bob Anderson in Its a Wonderful Life. Credit Cumberland House, via Associated Press When he was 7 he appeared in the Shirley Temple film “Young People” (1940), and had roles in other movies like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945). But he was best known for playing the young George Bailey in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946). As a despairing George Bailey contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve in fictional Bedford Falls, his life is told in flashback for the benefit of an angel assigned to watch over him. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In one flashback, young George spots a potentially fatal error made by a drunken druggist, played by H. B. Warner. (Later in the movie, George Bailey is shown what would have happened if he had not been there to catch the mistake.) After Navy service in the Korean War, Mr. Anderson had production jobs in the film industry, rising to production manager for movies and television programs. In addition to his wife, Mr. Anderson is survived by his sons, John, Bob Jr.

and Joe; his daughters, Kathleen Inman, Deborah Gutierrez and Heidi Anderson-Robinson; and 11 grandchildren. A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: Bob Anderson, 75, Child Actor. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe 'It's a Wonderful Life' Actress Reflects on Iconic Film - NBC News Dec 24 2015, 5:11 pm ET 'It's a Wonderful Life' Actress Reflects on Iconic Film by Eric Greenberg American actor James Stewart as George Bailey, hugs Karolyn Grimes, who plays Zuzu, his daughter, in a still from director Frank Capra's Christmas classic film, 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Hulton Archive / Getty Images Share advertisement She's one of the last surviving cast members of the 1946 holiday classic "It's a Wonderful Life." But it wasn't until the 1980's, when the long forgotten film was resurrected for television audiences, that former child actress Karolyn Grimes finally watched it to see what all the fuss was about.

Nearly 70 years later - Grimes, who played the role of George Bailey's daughter Zuzu, talked with MSNBC about the iconic film that was once "just another movie." MSNBC: Why do you think ["It's a Wonderful Life"] appeals so broadly to people 70 years later? Karoyln Grimes: It's timeless because it applies to yesterday, it applies to today and it applies to tomorrow. We all have banker problems. We all have issues. We can identify with the ups and downs that poor George goes through. We can identify with the fact that his dreams that he had for himself never came true. And it also identifies with the fact that as long as we have faith, family and friends - you know what - we're good. How did this part come along and do you remember anything about auditioning for it? KG: In those days we didn't audition. We had a one on one interview with the casting director or whoever else wanted to be in there. And for "It's a Wonderful Life," Mr. Capra was there. He hand picked everybody in his movies.

And he hand picked even the extras and there were 2,000 extras in "It's a Wonderful Life." Let me just run through a few names for you … James Stewart. KG: He was about six feet four. He was real tall and he was just a really gentle person who had a lot of patience and who was very calmed. Tell me a little bit more about his personality. KG: He was a quiet man … this was right after World War II and I think he was changed a little bit. And he just was a very nice man. And in later years, we got together again and he was still that nice man and he still helped his fellow man … he just did a lot of things for people that he didn't need accolades for … he was George Bailey. Did you bump into Lionel Barrymore at all? KG: Yeah, a couple of times … He had some sort of a sickness and he was actually in a wheelchair and they built the part around him being in that wheelchair. Frank Capra… KG: He was a very gentle man.

And he asked for you to do things and he got down on his hands and knees, looked you right in the eyes and said "this is what I want you to do." And so he got what he wanted out of you that way because he was eye level and he wasn't looking down at you and he just knew what to do … and he wasn't like a stickler to stick to every word in the script. He was kind of easy about that. If you didn't get each word exactly right, it was OK. Some directors weren't that way. Do you remember what you got paid for the film? KG: $75 a day. Whoa! What did you do with the money? Were you allowed to spend it? KG: Oh, heavens no. That went right to the coffers of my family. What's something that people watching at home might never guess about this film? KG: Maybe how the snow was made. It was made with fomite and Ivory soap flakes and sugar and all kinds of things. So when you watch the movie, you'd see suds going around. This was California so it was warm anyway, but what time of year was this filmed?

KG: It started in April and they finished about the first of August and it was extremely hot. They were having a heat wave. It was 95 degrees. Was Capra someone that did a lot of takes? KG: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. He shot 350,000 feet of film and he only used 11,900. It wasn't this huge box office hit. What do you remember about the actual release at the time? Or did you even think about it? KG: It was just another movie … I didn't even think about the fact that it was or wasn't a hit. I could have cared less at that point in my life … it was just a job … I went to the opening night but I fell asleep. A lot of people have only known it as the ultimate Christmas movie … a lot of people don't realize probably that no one thought twice about it for years and years. KG: That's true … They didn't think a thing about it … they didn't renew the copyright so it sat on a shelf 20 some years. That was what really helped it along because it was free and all the TV stations could show it.

And they showed it over and over and over again. And that's how they got exposed to the film. Pretty soon people found me and wanted to interview me … and I started getting fan mail. And I thought Jiminy Christmas, I better check this movie out. What's the best part of being connected to this movie? KG: Meeting the people. I love it. Just talking with people and sharing part of their lives for just a few moments … I get love and appreciation and I hope I give them the same. "It's a Wonderful Life" airs Christmas Eve at 8 p.m./ET on NBC. Eric Greenberg James Stewart: 5 Quotes About Iconic Role George Bailey A A When “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released in 1946, not many film critics (or average moviegoers for that matter) would have suspected that the film would become the classic that it did. In fact, the movie bombed at the box office. Here are five quotes from actor James Stewart and others about one of his most iconic roles, George Bailey. 1. James Stewart said of the film, “It didn't do well at all. I don't think it was the type of story people wanted right after the war.

They wanted a war-related story or a pure slapstick, Red Skelton type of comedy. Our movie just got lost.” 2. Despite this, Stewart always had faith in the film . When director Frank Capra initially described it to him, Stewart response was immediate: “Frank, If you want me to be in a picture about a guy that wants to kill himself and an angel comes down named Clarence who can’t swim and I save him, when do we start?” Vote Now: Who Is Your Favorite Actor of All Time? 3. From an article that appeared in Guideposts , Stewart discusses in greater detail what set the film apart from others he appeared in: “It wasn't the elaborate movie set, however, that made ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ so different; it was the story. The character I played was George Bailey, an ordinary fella who thinks he's never accomplished anything in life," Stewart said. 4. In the same article, Stewart went on to describe his connection to the role: “In agony I raise my eyes and, following the script, plead, 'God...

God...dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there and you can hear me, show me the way. I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God...’" Stewart said when recited those words, he "felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears." "I broke down sobbing," Stewart said. "This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless, had reduced me to tears.” 5. Despite the film’s cultural significance, Stewart always maintained a different and, perhaps, the best perspective on it: “Today, after some 40 years, I've heard the film called 'an American cultural phenomenon." Well, maybe so, but it seems to me there is nothing phenomenal about the movie itself.

It's simply about an ordinary man who discovers that living each ordinary day honorably, with faith in God and a selfless concern for others, can make for a truly wonderful life.” It’s a Wonderful Life: my most overrated Christmas film | Film | The Guardian Film blog It’s a Wonderful Life: my most overrated Christmas film Frank Capra’s classic movie is a celebration of picket-fence smugness. Boring Bedford Falls would have been better had George Bailey never lived – from the magical, sleazy bar to the bowling alley More suburban prejudice than Margaret Thatcher at a Grantham fete … James Stewart, Donna Reed and tousle-headed family in It’s a Wonderful Life. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/RKO Monday 22 December 2014 04.27 EST Last modified on Wednesday 24 December 2014 05.44 EST Share on Messenger Close Well hot dog dickety damn, what is it about this film that makes people love it so much? Is it the bit where the black maid gets spanked back into her kitchen? The bit where the little people of Bedford Falls joyously tip out their entire life savings to rescue the bungling banker?

Is it the snappy dialogue? “You’re 18!” our hero George Bailey , played by James Stewart, exclaims at one point. “Why, it was only last year you were 17!” I don’t, by the way, think It’s a Wonderful Life is terrible. I just think it’s frequently wrongheaded and desperately overlong, with more suburban prejudice than Margaret Thatcher at a Grantham fete. Nowhere is this better illustrated than the key section when George, facing ruin over misplaced money, contemplates leaping to his death off a bridge. A guardian angel talks the boozed-up savings-and-loans man out of it, then decides to show him what life in Bedford Falls would have been like had he never lived. We are then led through Pottersville, as this alternative town is called – a nightmarish den of vice and depravity, full of stumbling people, blaring sirens and flashing neon. Pinterest On the brink … James Stewart contemplates suicide in It’s a Wonderful Life. Photograph: PR And it looks absolutely magic.

It’s certainly a million miles away from soporific Bedford Falls, with its bow-tied early risers saying hee-haw to each other on street corners. To the sound of swinging Dixieland jazz, the camera follows an increasingly horrified George through this vision of hell. There’s the (shock!) Dime-a-Dance Club welcoming jitterbuggers. There’s the (horror!) Blue Moon bowling alley. There’s the (shriek!) Bamboo Rooms cocktail lounge. The terrors don’t stop there. When George and Clarence, as his angel is called, stop off for a drink at a Pottersville bar, there are people smoking. There is raucous laughter and a black guy playing boogie-woogie piano. There is even a grumpy barman – with stubble. When Clarence orders a mulled wine heavy on the cinnamon and light on the cloves, he is told: “Look mister, we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast.” The two are tossed out face-first into the snow. Pinterest Martini’s bar, before the descent into Pottersville.

Mind you, that guy on George’s left is about to deck him It’s the sort of bar I dream about, the sort of bar bars are meant to be. It reminds me of a long-gone dive in Glasgow that used to serve whisky or double whisky – and if you wanted Coke or lemonade you could go to the chip shop, pal. But then George goes and ruins everyone’s fun, deciding to live and finding himself transported back to Bedford Falls for a victory dash down its high street, now restored to its boring state. Jubilant and cheering, he jogs past a school uniform shop (I’m not making this up), a gown store, and the Bijou cinema showing The Bells of St Mary’s, a film about a priest and a nun trying to save a school. Pinterest ‘Nauseatingly wholesome’ … Clarence and George Bailey. Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/RKO It’s a picket fence of a film, nauseatingly wholesome as it trundles through 1940s America like a station wagon on its way back from the mall, a celebration of everything that later directors – from Todd Haynes with Far from Heaven to David Lynch with Blue Velvet – would come to mock.

And then there’s that misplaced money. Uncle Billy, who works with George, takes $8,000 in cash along to the bank. That’s the equivalent of about $130,000 today. And he just sort of dodderingly counts it out and then accidentally puts it inside a newspaper and then accidentally puts that newspaper on baddie Mr Potter’s lap. I mean really? How would you be with $130,000 in cash? Maybe slightly careful. Maybe very careful. Maybe totally paranoid actually. It’s a scene that is as staggeringly unconvincing as it is badly shot, about as believable as George lasso-ing the moon. And the whole film hinges on it. Pinterest True, up until that point, the fact that Uncle Billy is one loan short of a portfolio has been Very Loudly Telegraphed, but this only makes it worse, transferring the blame to George for trusting such a glaring buffoon with a fortune in cash. Weighing in at 135 minutes, Wonderful Life isn’t the longest film ever made but it sometimes feels like it.

Single shot scenes – like the one in which the Baileys chat at the dinner table, or George and Mary meander home from the dance – stretch on for what feels like days. Maybe director Frank Capra just fell asleep behind the lens. Presumably, these weren’t the scenes scripted by an uncredited Dorothy Parker. Apparently Seneca Falls, a town in upstate New York, holds an It’s a Wonderful Life festival every year. It claims to have been the inspiration for Bedford Falls, Capra having visited there in 1945. Remind me never to go. Hee-haw! And Merry Christmas everybody! It's A Wonderful Life (1946) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) Background It's A Wonderful Life (1946), originally made for Liberty Films, is one of the most popular and heartwarming films ever made by director Frank Capra. Frank Capra regarded this film as his own personal favorite - it was also James Stewart's favorite of all his feature films.

It was actually a box-office flop at the time of its release, and only became the Christmas movie classic in the 1970s due to repeated television showings at Christmas-time when its copyright protection slipped and it fell into the public domain in 1974 and TV stations could air it for free. [Republic Pictures restored its copyright claim to the film in 1993, with exclusive video rights to it. Currently, it can be shown only on the NBC-TV network, and its distribution rights belong to Paramount Pictures.] The film's screenplay (credited as being written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Capra himself, with additional scenes by Jo Swerling) was based on "The Greatest Gift," an original short story first written on a Christmas card by Philip Van Doren Stern. Uncredited for their work on the script were Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, and Clifford Odets. It is actually a dark, bittersweet post-war tale of a savings-and-loan manager who struggles against a greedy banker and his own self-doubting nature in a small town.

Earnest do-gooder George Bailey (James Stewart) recognizes his life as wonderful and truly rich, even in its humdrum and bleak nature, only after suffering many hardships, mishaps and fateful trials (including compromised dreams of youth to leave the town and seek fame and fortune, other sacrifices, dismay, losses and the threat of financial ruin, and suicide). He is given encouragement by a whimsical, endearing, trainee-angel named Clarence (Henry Travers). The story turns Dickensian (similar to A Christmas Carol, although told from Bob Cratchit's point-of-view rather than from Scrooge's) when the hysterical, despairing, and melancholy family man is shown what the small town (Bedford Falls, now renamed Pottersville after the town's evil tycoon) would be like without him. It's a frightening, nightmarish, noirish view of the world (at Christmas-time) that brings him back from self-destruction. He returns to the idyllic, small-town world that he left, with renewed faith and confidence in life itself. Hence, the film's title: It's a Wonderful Life.

The plot of the film was copied in the rags-to-riches fantasy storyline (also with a guardian angel played by Michael Caine) of Disney's Mr. Destiny (1990), starring James Belushi, and in Brett Ratner's The Family Man (2000) with Nicolas Cage. The famous "Pottersville" alternate reality scenes were also referenced in Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future Part II (1989), in which the small town of Hill Valley was transformed into a Las Vegas-like Babylon in 1985, with young Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) in the role of George Bailey. The picture earned five Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (James Stewart in his first film in almost six years), Best Director (Capra), Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing, but won no Oscars. (It was eclipsed by William Wyler's award-winning The Best Years of Our Lives .) The Story The film's credits are seen in an illustrated storybook of wintry scenes as the pages turn.

As the film opens, the setting is the typical, but imaginary American small town of Bedford Falls, somewhere in New York State, identified by a snow-covered welcome sign. It is Christmas Eve. Prayers from friends in Bedford Falls are heard for a man named George Bailey on the verge of suicide. The camera pans over locations in town, identifying where the voices are coming from - Gower Drug Store, Martini's, the local church, one of the homes, Bedford Falls Garage, and George's own home, where his children's voices are heard. The camera shot dissolves slowly upward into the star-filled, dark night sky where two pulsating galaxies of light come into view. Two heavenly angels are conversing together in the film's otherworldly opening. They have heard the prayers for the film's hero, George Bailey (James Stewart), a man overwhelmed by his problems. Every time one of the heavenly voices speaks, the stars twinkle. In this cosmic fantasy sequence, Angel Joseph tells Angel Franklin that they will appoint a guardian angel for George. But the only angel available is Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), Angel Second Class, a sweet but inept, child-like apprentice angel who hasn't yet earned his wings.

The apprentice is summoned, and portrayed as a streaking star that appears before the brighter angelic stars. Before being dispatched, Clarence is told that George is despondent and considering suicide, "throwing away God's greatest gift," his life - he obviously needs angelic assistance. Clarence is promised that if he does a good job, he will earn his wings. Before Clarence is given a chance to become a full-fledged angel and sent to Earth, the heavenly powers show, in flashback, key events and background on George's life from his boyhood, to provide Clarence with important information about why George is so despairing. Bedford Falls comes slowly into focus. It is the year 1919 and young native George Bailey (Bobbie Anderson) is 12 years old - born, raised, and educated in Bedford Falls. George and a group of friends are sliding down an icy hill on shovels onto a frozen pond. When his younger kid brother Harry (George Nokes) slides past the safe area and plunges into the freezing water at the end of the icy pond, George jumps in after him and saves him from drowning by forming a human chain, but his heroics cause him to catch a bad cold.

From the resulting infection, he goes deaf in his left ear. In the afternoons, George works at the local drugstore owned by "old man" Mr. Gower (H. B. Warner). Walking to work with his friends, they stand in awe and watch a horse-driven, hearse-like carriage pass by, carrying Mr. Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), "the richest and meanest man" in the county. At the store, he talks with a flirtatious eight year old Violet Bick (Jeanine Anne Roose) who orders candy at the counter and vies for George's attention. Also there is young Mary Hatch (Jean Gale, or Jeanne Gail), the childhood sweetheart he will eventually marry. Mary orders a chocolate sundae, but rejects George's offer of coconuts on top. George tells "brainless" Mary that cocoanuts come from Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, and the Coral Sea. Obviously, he wants to explore and see the world, bragging about being nominated as a member of the National Geographic Society.

When he bends down in front of her, she whispers into his deaf ear, vowing: "George Bailey - I'll love you till the day I die." She already knows that the boastful George is the only man she'll ever love, but he doesn't hear her. While finishing fixing her order, George discovers a recent telegram to druggist Mr. Gower informing him of the tragic death of his son Robert, due to influenza. Distraught over the news and drinking as a result, the despondent Mr. Gower mistakenly mixes a pill prescription containing poisonous cyanide. Gower gives the order to George for an emergency delivery. Although obedient and diligent, George realizes that the prescription is fatal, but he faces a dilemma - should he deliver it? As he leaves the store, Mary is still sitting at the soda fountain counter, watching him as he dashes off. Not knowing what to do, young George spots a sign with the words: "Ask Dad - he knows." Young George runs to his dad Peter Bailey (Samuel Hinds) for advice. His father is busy in the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association building, confronting Potter in his office.

George's lovable Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), (Peter Bailey's brother), known for wearing strings around his fingers to prevent absent-mindedness, prevents George from interrupting, but is called away. George enters his father's office and listens to the conversation between his father and Potter. The contrast between Bailey and Potter is clear - Potter wears black, sits in a wheelchair, and is a "hard-skulled," villainous, miserly banker demanding immediate payments and whose consuming goal in life is to destroy the Building and Loan. And Bailey is a champion and defender of the rights of the little man, refusing to foreclose on the mortgages of families in town. Potter insults Bailey: "Are you running a business or a charity ward?" and young George stands up and comes to his father's defense when Potter calls him a failure. His father rushes him out of the office without giving him a chance to ask about the pills. George returns to the store with the undelivered capsules. Before learning of the mistake, Mr. Gower angrily slaps George's sore ear for disobediently not delivering the order, although the boy describes the druggist's error: "You put something wrong in those capsules. It wasn't your fault, Mr.

Gower." When the old man tests the pills and learns the truth, he breaks down and tearfully embraces George, profusely begging him for forgiveness. George promises never to tell anyone about the mistake. The film moves ahead to the summer of 1928. George has grown up into adulthood and as a young man, he finally has his chance to get out of tiny Bedford Falls before entering college. He is about to leave for Europe on an exotic trip aboard an ocean freighter to see the world. He is in a local luggage and bags store purchasing a suitcase. With his hands outstretched, the moving image of George is suddenly stopped on the screen by the angels, as they inspect and comment upon it. When the flashback continues, George insists that his suitcase must be big enough "for a thousand and one nights with plenty of room here for labels from Italy and Baghdad...." He is presented with a second-hand bag with his name inscribed on it, a present from his ex-boss Mr. Gower. On the streets of town, townspeople kid with him about his upcoming trip.

With friends Ernie (Frank Faylen), the taxi driver, and Bert (Ward Bond), the cop [it has been hypothesized that the names for the Bert and Ernie characters on Sesame Street were taken from this film], he calls himself "a rich tourist" and asks to be driven home in style. Just then, George sees another childhood friend, Violet (Gloria Grahame), the town flirt. He compliments her on her summer dress, but she shrugs coquettishly and walks away wiggling her hips, stopping traffic and getting them all to crank their gaze in her direction. George spends his last night - the evening of brother Harry's (Todd Karns) high school graduation, with his parents for "his last meal" at the Bailey home. Behind his father on the wall are George's framed butterfly collection. His father tells him that Potter, on the board of directors, continues to harrass them. George calls Potter a "money-grubbing buzzard," although Mr. Bailey excuses Potter's miserliness as a sickness of his mind and soul. George has spent four years since his high school graduation working for his father at the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association.

George has "it all figured out." His younger brother Harry is to take his place at the Bailey Company for four years while he goes off to college. Mr. Bailey sounds out his "born older" son George about what he wants to do in his future. George boasts about his plans: "Oh well, you know what I've always talked about. Build things. Design new buildings. Plan modern cities." Mr. Bailey also asks about his son's feelings about taking over the Building and Loan. Exuberant about leaving Bedford Falls and traveling in his future, George declines his father's offer to return back home after college to take over the business: "I-I couldn't face being cooped up for the rest of my life in a shabby little office....I'd go crazy. I -, I want to do something big, something important." His father defends the importance of their business, sacrificing his entire life to altruistically help depositors in his bank and his family: "It's deep in the race for a man to want his own roof, walls, and fireplace.

And we're helping him get those things in our 'shabby little office.'" George doesn't wish to demean his father's work, but explains that he wants to get away and achieve financial/worldly success: "I just feel like if I didn't get away, I'd bust." His empathic father demonstrates his understanding. At Harry's 1928 high-school graduation party, George is heartily greeted by old friends including Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), a recent college graduate. Sam is known for prefacing conversations with "Hee Haw" and pretending to have floppy donkey ears. Violet approaches and offers her dance card to George: "What am I bid?" But George slights Violet when he is interrupted by Mary Hatch's brother Marty Hatch (Harold Landon) - they are all together again for old home week. Marty suggests that George dance with his "kid sister Mary" to give her "the thrill of her life." Violet reacts with mock surprise as George turns to look for Mary. His tall figure makes its way through the crowd to find her.

When he sees the grown-up 18 year-old Mary (Donna Reed), the first time they have met since they were childhood friends, she looks exquisitely beautiful in a close-up and he is visibly impressed with her. Although Mary is listening to an obnoxious suitor named Freddie (Carl Switzer, Our Gang's 'Alfalfa') tell her a boring story about an experience he has had, she immediately turns away and shows an interest and fondness for George. He takes her away from her partner and they go off dancing together after George tells Freddie off. Beginning a heart-warming set of dreamlike sequences, George courts his childhood sweetheart and their love grows. At the party, they enter a Charleston dance contest, while unbeknownst to them, the jealous rival Freddie plots his revenge with a prank. With the turn of a key and the push of a button, the gym dance floor is opened up, revealing a swimming pool underneath. When the floor separates beneath them, they are so carried away with their hectic Charleston dancing that they don't notice - and they plunge backwards into the pool. Soon, everyone joins them in the water, including the school principal.

George and Mary walk home together, returning from the high school dance after falling in the pool and soaking their party clothes. They wear a hastily-thrown together weird assortment of borrowed clothes - George a tight #3 football jersey and Mary a long, loose-fitting bathrobe. They sing an off-key duet of "Buffalo Gals" under the light of a new moon. Then, he sweet-talks her, calling his eighteen year-old date "the prettiest girl in town" while distancing himself slightly. On their way home while strolling along the street, they pause in front of the old deserted Granville house, and the gawky George accidentally steps on her bathrobe belt, the pretended "train" of her dress. She stops so that they can pretend a chivalrous encounter in a dramatic game. As a courtly lady, she extends her hand for a kiss from her courtier. He approaches closer to her, intending to give her a real kiss, but she coyly and slowly turns away from him. Playful, she walks away and continues to sing "Buffalo Gals." George threatens to hurl a rock through one of the Granville house windows.

He wants to make a wish - one that will only come true if he breaks a window. Mary wishes he wouldn't and confesses that she'd like to live in that old abandoned house - a prophetic wish: "I love that old house...It's full of romance, that old place. I'd like to live in it." He throws a rock and his aim is accurate - he breaks a window on the second floor. But then, he loudly describes his "whole hatful" of wishes to see the world and build magnificent buildings: I'm shakin' the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Coliseum. Then, I'm comin' back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I'm gonna build things. I'm gonna build airfields, I'm gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I'm gonna build bridges a mile long... Mary interrupts George by picking up a rock (unnoticed at first by self-centered George) and silently makes a wish of her own.

[Her wish, learned later, is to live with George someday in the Granville house.] Following George's example, she throws it through another window - and seals their fate. George curiously asks about her wish. For a second time, she replies with a sly smile as her answer, and then turns and continues down the street singing "Buffalo Gals." She explains that if she tells him her wish for the future, it wouldn't come true. George asks about her deepest wishes and then offers her a poetic, imaginative fantasy about lasso-ing the moon and bringing it down to Earth so that she can eat it - it's almost a marriage proposal: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You-you want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon...Well, then you could swallow it. And it'll all dissolve, see. And the moon beams that shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair...Am I talking too much?

A bald, overweight neighbor (Dick Elliott) on a nearby back porch hears their romantic, non-sensical conversation and challenges George to do less talking and try more romantic action: "Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?" Just then, George inadvertently steps on Mary's bathrobe again and she accidentally loses it. She jumps into the hydrangea bushes to hide. Aroused by her predicament, he hesitates to throw her robe to her and teases her in a good-natured way, calling it "a very interesting situation." Mary begs for her robe back as he circles the bush with the bathrobe in his hands. George's imaginative and harmonious contemplation of possibilities with Mary is interrupted when a car roars up the street with Harry and Uncle Billy. He abruptly leaves after receiving the tragic news that his father has had a stroke. The beautiful harmony of their mutual attraction is shattered. The last shot of the scene is a long, sustained close-up of Mary (with a mixed expression of sadness, concern and disappointment). She watches the car drive off. Mr. Bailey death means that George's dream of traveling abroad to Europe for the summer before college is short-circuited.

He must handle the affairs of his father's business in the few months following his father's death. In a meeting of the board of the Bailey Building and Loan Company that gathers to vote on its future and to choose a successor to Mr. Bailey, George listens to Mr. Potter (one of the board members) present a motion to dissolve the Building and Loan Association in a bold-faced attempt to shut it down. Although Potter calls George's father "a man of high ideals," he criticizes Peter Bailey's business sense - he's "not a business man - that's what killed him," maintaining that the company was always a losing proposition. The crotchety old Potter believes that the loan policies of the company only produce: "a discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class." Potter complains about a few idealistic, "starry-eyed dreamers like Peter Bailey (who) stir 'em up and fill their head with a lot of impossible ideas." George delivers an inspired address in defense of his father's character, fighting selfishness and deceitfulness with honesty and decency.

He speaks for the hard-working people of the town, and the way his father made them all better citizens and customers: Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about. They do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well, in my book, he died a much richer man than you'll ever be. George is committed to keeping alive the company as the only alternative to allowing Bedford Falls to fall completely under the ownership of greedy and unscrupulous Mr. Potter - the only source for borrowing money.

"This town needs this measly, one-horse institution if only to have someplace where people can come without crawling to Potter." Potter calls George's ideals "sentimental hogwash." The board votes not to sell out to Potter but to keep the Bailey Building and Loan Company under one condition - if George is kept in charge as Executive Secretary to succeed his father. When they suggest that absent-minded Uncle Billy run the company - an unworkable alternative, George realizes his opportunities to go to college and study architecture are closing down, crying: "This is my last chance." But then, he again agrees to sacrifice and sidetrack his personal dreams as a victim of circumstance. He will remain in Bedford Falls to operate the company, inherit the responsibilities of running the loan company, and instead send his younger brother to college, using his own college savings. Over the next four years, George manages the company while his brother attends college in his place. When Harry graduates from college in 1932, he is to come back to Bedford Falls and run the family business.

At the train station, George waits with Uncle Billy for his brother to return from college for the last time - while eagerly clutching travel brochures to Venezuela and the Yukon in his hands. He believes that he can finally be replaced at the company by his brother and turn over the management to Harry - he can, at last, leave Bedford Falls. As the approaching train whistle sounds, George explains the three most exciting sounds in the world: Anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles. The two brothers greet each other with overlapping lines when Harry bounds off the train. Unexpectedly, Harry is accompanied by his new bride Ruth (Virginia Patton), and George learns of Harry's promise of profitable work (out of town) in the research business for his father-in-law's glass factory in Buffalo. In a close-up of George's despairing, frustrated and dispirited face, he suddenly falls silent, realizing that he is doomed to stay in town. George is left alone as Harry returns to the train for his luggage. His dreams of escape and adventure are dashed, but he keeps his bitterness and discouragement to himself.

Its A Wonderful Life - Final Scenes - Christmas Classic - YouTube Its A Wonderful Life - Final Scenes - Christmas Classic Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Nov 23, 2008 The wonderful last part of the classic movie "It's A Wonderful Life" starring Jimmy Stewart. This starts when he returns to his real life, very grateful and very happy. Of course he seeks out his family, for it is they who make it a truly wonderful life. After watching this video, please check out the "Merry Christmas" merchandise on sale right now and available by clicking here: Birth Name: James Maitland Stewart Born on May 20, 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, US Died on July 2, 1997 in Beverly Hills, California, US Jimmy Stewart was a major American movie star known for his portrayals of diffident but morally resolute characters.

Stewart was a graduate of Princeton University in the field of architecture and became part of the University Players at Falmouth, Massachusetts, joining such future film actors as Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan. He moved to Hollywood in the mid-1930s, but his slow speaking pattern and angular features puzzled directors as to how best to cast him. His naive, engaging manner, however, led to quick acceptance by the movie-going public. Stewart's first film was Murder Man (1935). In the late 1930s, he appeared in such hit comedies as director Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). In 1940 his role in The Philadelphia Story earned him an Academy Award. During World War II, Stewart rose from private to colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and as a bomber pilot he flew a number of missions over Germany. The first film he made after the war, Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), is still an annual Christmas classic.

In it Stewart played George Bailey, an embittered idealist who is helped to see how significant he has been--despite his frustrated ambitions and his genteel poverty--to his family and his community. Stewart then appeared in several westerns directed by Anthony Mann, including Winchester '73 (1950), Bend of the River (1952), The Naked Spur (1953), and The Man from Laramie (1955). His performances in Harvey (1950), in the Alfred Hitchcock thrillers Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and Vertigo (1958), and in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959) are among his greatest. He also portrayed the American bandleader Glenn Miller in The Glenn Miller Story (1953) and the pilot Charles Lindbergh in The Spirit of St. Louis (1957). His last films were westerns, such as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Shenandoah (1965), and The Shootist (1976).

When James Stewart won the Best Actor Oscar in 1940, he sent it to his father in Indiana, Pennsylvania, who set it in his hardware shop. The trophy remained there for 25 years. He won the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1980 and the The James Stewart Museum was dedicated in Indiana, PA on May 20, 1995. Stewart and his wife have twin daughters - Judy and Kelly.

Question: James Stewart played the part of George Bailey in which film?
Answer: It's a Wonderful Life